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Section: Partnerships and Cooperations

International Initiatives

INRIA Associate Teams

CDMRI
  • Title: Computational Diffusion MRI

  • INRIA principal investigator: Rachid Deriche

  • International Partner:

    • Institution: University of Minnesota (United States)

    • Laboratory: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of Minnesota, Center for Magnetic Resonance Research

    • Researchers: Guillermo Sapiro & Christophe Lenglet

  • International Partner:

    • Institution: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (Bethesta, MD) (United States)

    • Laboratory: Section on Tissue Biophysics and Biomimetics

    • Researcher: Peter Basser

  • Duration: 2009 - 2011

  • See also: http://www-sop.inria.fr/teams/odyssee/contracts/Computational-Diffusion-MRI/

  • The CD-MRI Associate Team was created to bring each partner's expertise together in the field of Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging with the objective to help in making significant contributions to the processing and analysis of diffusion weighted imaging data, a task well known to be extremely challenging due to the complex underlying properties of the tissue being imaged and the structure of the data

    The rational behind this project was to benefit from the complementarity and the synergy of our expertise and to combine our efforts and ideas to succeed achieving this exciting and challenging objective. Indeed, our groups at Inria, NICHD and the University of Minnesota have great and complementary expertise in Diffusion MRI.

    ATHENA Project Team has greatly contributed during the last years to develop original and efficient algorithms relying on Riemannian geometry, differential geometry, partial differential equations and front propagation techniques to correctly and efficiently process Diffusion MRI data. The group of Peter Basser at NICHD had pioneered the so-called diffusion tensor imaging in the mid 90's, and since then has developed numerous and important applications to clinical research. The Center for Magnetic Resonance Research at University of Minnesota is a research lab, unique in the domain of high field MRI, with no less than six high field magnets; and the group of Guillermo Sapiro in the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering is one of the best worldwide dedicated to research in imaging sciences.

    Therefore, the CD-MRI started in 2009 with the following main objectives:

    • Develop rigorous mathematical and computational tools for the analysis of Diffusion MRI data.

    • Improve acquisition techniques for High Angular Resolution Diffusion Imaging,

    • Write joint publications and help address challenging clinical applications.

    Through an extensive exchange program involving PhD's as well Post-Docs's and senior scientists between all the partners, our Associate Team has been able to tackle these challenging objectives without the need to relocate any of them.

    Indeed, we have contributed to advance the state-of-the-art in Computational Diffusion MRI, we have been very successful to initiate and pursue research on optimal diffusion gradient schemes (single, multi-shell), online ODF reconstruction and motion detection, optimal reconstruction of the propagator and decoding axon diameter distribution information encrypted in radial NMR attenuation signals. We proposed new Kalman based acquisition and sampling techniques particularly well adapted to process HARDI data and make it clinically feasible, and wrote several joint publications in international conferences, some of which are or will be submitted to journals.

Visits of International Scientists

Internships
  • John TREILHARD (from May 2011 until Aug 2011)

    • Subject: Using Radial NMR Profiles to Characterize Pore Size Distributions.

    • Institution: Queen's University, Kingston Ontario (Canada).

    • Supervisor: R. Deriche.

  • Alvaro Alejandro SANCHEZ MOSCOSA (from April 2011 until Sept. 2011)

    • Subject: White Matter Clustering Revisited.

    • Institution: Royal Institute of Technology, KTH STH (Sweden).

  • Karthikeyan GANESAN (from March 2011 until June 2011)

    • Subject: Modélisation multimodale de données fonctionnelles cérébrales.

    • Institution: Delft University of Technology (Netherlands).

    • Supervisor: T. Papadopoulo and M. Clerc.

  • Meizhu Liu (from May 2011 until July 2011)

    • Subject: A Variational based Approach for Diffusion MRI Régularization and its Applications.

    • Institution: University of Florida (United States).

    • Supervisor: R. Deriche.

  • Gonzalo Vegas-Sánchez-Ferrero (from May 2011 until July 2011)

    • Subject: Anisotropic LMMSE denoising of MRI based on statistitcal tissue models

    • Institution: University of Valladolid (Spain).

    • Supervisor: R. Deriche.

Participation In International Programs

We have initiated a collaboration entitled Computational Brain Imaging Through Diffusion MRI with the Computer Vision and Pattern Analysis Laboratory led by Pr. Gozde Unal at the Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Sabanci University, Istanbul (Turkey). Our main objectif in this PHC Bosphore 2010 project is focused on automating the tractography process for white matter fibers. Building on the expertise of the two teams at INRIA and Sabanci University (SU), we will develop novel computational techniques for processing Diffusion Tensor-MRI (DTI), and study specific pathways for their analysis and visualization using new mathematical models. This project started in January 2010 and is granted for 2 years.

We have also a collaboration within the framework ECOS-Sud on a project based on Diffusion MRI and Autism with Prof. Mariano Sigman (Integrative Neuroscience Laboratory, Physics Dept. University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina) and B. Wicker (INCM UMR 6193 CNRS, Université de la Méditerranée, Marseille, France) and O. Coulon (LSIS/ESIL UMR 6168). This project started in Sept. 2009 and is granted for 2 years.

We have also a collaboration within the framework STIC-Algerie on a project based on Diffusion MRI with Prof. D. Cherifi and L. Boumghar from USTHB, Algiers. This project started in July. 2011 and is granted for 2 years.